The Bolivian Diary

Che Guevara Publishing Project

These books form part of a series published by Ocean Press and the Che Guevara Studies Center, Havana, with the objective of disseminating the works and ideas of Che Guevara. By presenting Che in his own words, the series hopes to contribute to a better understanding of Che's thought, allowing the reader to delve into his cultural depth, his irony, his passion, and his astute observations, that is to say, the living Che.

Self-Portrait

A Photographic and Literary Memoir

The Motorcycle Diaries

Notes on a Latin American Journey

Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War

Authorized Edition

The Bolivian Diary

Authorized Edition

Che Guevara Reader

Writings on Politics and Revolution

Latin America

Awakening of a Continent

Global Justice

Liberation and Socialism

Guerrilla Warfare

Authorized Edition

Our America and Theirs

Kennedy's Alliance for Progress

Marx & Engels

A Biographical Introduction

Critical Notes on Political Economy

A Critical Analysis of the Soviet Economic Model

Socialism and Humanity in Cuba

A Classic Edition

ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA

INTRODUCTION BY
FIDEL CASTRO

PREFACE BY
CAMILO GUEVARA

Ocean Press www.oceanbooks.com.au

Cover design: Rachel Kirby

Copyright © 2006 Ocean Press

Copyright © 2006 Che Guevara Studies Center

Copyright © 2006 Aleida March

All photographs copyright © Aleida March and the Che Guevara Studies Center

Preface © 2006 Camilo Guevara

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-921700-80-4

Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 2005931646

PUBLISHED BY OCEAN PRESS

E-mail:
[email protected]
•
www.oceanbooks.com.au

 

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Editor's Note

Ernesto Che Guevara

Chronology

Maps

Preface

by Camilo Guevara

A Necessary Introduction

by Fidel Castro

THE BOLIVIAN DIARY

APPENDICES

Instructions to Urban Cadres

Communiqué No. 1 to the Bolivian People

Communiqué No. 2 to the Bolivian People

Communiqué No. 3 to the Bolivian People

Communiqué No. 4 to the Bolivian People

Communiqué No. 5 to the Bolivian Miners

GLOSSARY

This edition of Che Guevara's
The Bolivian Diary
has been prepared by the Che Guevara Studies Center, Havana. It is based on the first authorized edition published in Spanish in 1968 by the Cuban Book Institute. Certain pages that did not appear in that first edition have now been incorporated. Those diary entries, originally withheld by the Bolivian government for “security” reasons, are dated: January 4, 5, 8, and 9; February 8 and 9; March 14; April 4 and 5; June 9 and 10; and July 4 and 5.

The text of the first edition has also been thoroughly checked and revised against facsimiles of the diary itself in order to clarify terms or words that were illegible. In the few remaining instances where this has not been possible, the text is marked “illegible in the original.”

Che used a variety of noms de guerre or nicknames throughout the diary and sometimes the same person was referred to by several different names. For this reason, a glossary has been prepared to aid the reader.

Che's spelling of place names in the area of Bolivia in which the guerrilla force operated also varied, and this is reflected in the diary. Some of these names have been standardized to assist the reader, for example, in the case of the Ñacahuazú River.
Generally, however, the integrity of the original diary has been maintained.

Several key documents related to the Bolivian revolutionary movement at the time have been included as
appendices
. Throughout the diary, however, Che makes references to other documents that have not been reproduced here.

Ocean Press

O
ne of
Time
magazine's “icons of the century,” Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928. He made several trips around Latin America during and immediately after his studies at medical school in Buenos Aires, including his 1952 journey with Alberto Granado, on the unreliable Norton motorbike described in his travel journal
The Motorcycle Diaries.

He was already becoming involved in political activity and living in Guatemala when, in 1954, the elected government of Jacobo Árbenz was overthrown in a CIA-organized military operation. Ernesto escaped to Mexico, profoundly radicalized.

Following up on a contact made in Guatemala, Guevara sought out the group of exiled Cuban revolutionaries in Mexico City. In July 1955, he met Fidel Castro and immediately enlisted in the guerrilla expedition to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The Cubans nicknamed him “Che,” a popular form of address in Argentina.

On November 25, 1956, Guevara set sail for Cuba aboard the yacht
Granma
as the doctor to the guerrilla group that began the revolutionary armed struggle in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains. Within several months, he was named by Fidel Castro as
the first Rebel Army commander, though he continued ministering medically to wounded guerrilla fighters and captured soldiers from Batista's army.

In September 1958, Guevara played a decisive role in the military defeat of Batista after he and Camilo Cienfuegos led separate guerrilla columns westward from the Sierra Maestra (later described in his book
Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War
).

After Batista fled on January 1, 1959, Guevara became a key leader of the new revolutionary government, first as head of the Department of Industry of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform; then as president of the National Bank. In February 1961 he became minister of industry. He was also a central leader of the political organization that in 1965 became the Communist Party of Cuba.

Apart from these responsibilities, Guevara often represented the Cuban revolutionary government around the world, heading numerous delegations and speaking at the United Nations and other international forums in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the socialist bloc countries. He earned a reputation as a passionate and articulate spokesperson for Third World peoples, most famously at the 1961 conference at Punta del Este in Uruguay, where he denounced US President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress.

As had been his intention since joining the Cuban revolutionary movement, Guevara left Cuba in April 1965, initially to lead a Cuban-organized guerrilla mission to support the revolutionary struggle in the Congo, Africa. He returned to Cuba secretly in December 1965, to prepare another Cuban-organized guerrilla force for Bolivia. Arriving in Bolivia in
November 1966, Guevara's plan was to challenge that country's military dictatorship and eventually to instigate a revolutionary movement that would extend throughout the continent of Latin America. He was wounded and captured by US-trained and run Bolivian counterinsurgency troops on October 8, 1967. The following day he was murdered and his body hidden. The diary he wrote during this period is published in this book.

Che Guevara's remains were finally discovered in 1997 and returned to Cuba. A memorial was built at Santa Clara in central Cuba, where he had won a major military battle during the revolutionary war.